3 - A Relational Theory of Women’s Political Participation

Summary

Chapter 3 builds a theory of women’s political behavior under conditions of patriarchy and gender inequality. It argues for the defining role of the household in women’s political lives and describes the conditions that would lead to household political cooperation – joint household political decision-making – and hypothesizes its implications for individual women’s political behavior and the structure of political organization more broadly. It then develops a series of expectations about how and when women will become active political citizens, arguing for the importance of women’s autonomy from the household, their social solidarity with each other, and the potential for women’s collective action to transform their political lives.